Kouoh told Artforum in August that there is an ‘energy of Pan-Africanism that is being revived on the continent and across its vast diaspora’. At least in part, the growing mightiness of the African artworld is down to the curator’s own efforts. As the director of Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA since 2019, and having established her name through the RAW Material Company in Senegal, Kouoh has become a leading light at home and abroad. Current shows at the institution include solos for Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan and South African Nolan Oswald Dennis. Earlier this year, Kunstmuseum Basel opened When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a survey exhibition curated by Kouoh that debuted at Zeitz. Not that it has all been plain sailing: in June, the artist Tracey Rose lambasted Kouoh and Kunstmuseum Bern, claiming that a work about Palestine had been censored in her solo show at the Swiss institution, curated by Kouoh. Earlier this year, Kouoh oversaw Zeitz MOCAA’s annual gala, the proceeds of which help fund its educational and curatorial programming.